Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of insurance policy issuance and management. More specifically, the present invention is related to the automated search for and linking of expired and current insurance policy terms to aid in the calculation of future policy terms.
Discussion of Prior Art
In the determination of insurance policy premiums and the calculation of future policy terms, and even when adjusting claims and calculating loss runs for policyholders insured under prior insurance policies, it becomes beneficial to maintain archives of and provide efficient access to the characteristics and data of previously issued policies. Currently, industry-wide standards typically call for existing policies, that are about to expire, to be renewed. The process of recalculating policy terms, in order to renew an insurance policy for a subsequent calendar year; is known as the “renewal” process. Because most companies do not retain expired insurance policies, the “renewal” process requires the manual re-computation of policy terms from information that must once again be gathered from the policyholder. In addition, policies that may have been incorrectly issued, either because of incomplete or inaccurate policy conditions, must be put through a process known as “cancel-flat re-issue”. This process is very similar to the renewal process in that the policy terms and conditions must be carried forward to a new iteration of the policy's existence.
Often times, to assist in a re-computation of terms, a “pull forward” subfolder is created in which to “pull” and keep information from prior paper-based policies. In this manner, information from a prior policy's folder is copied and stored in the new policy's folder without having to have the entire prior policy folder pulled from the paper system.
For example, recalculating a workers compensation premium would require collecting from the policyholder, information such as number of accidents in the previous year, number of employees on payroll, the amount of payroll per employee, the job classification of the employees, experience modifications, merit modifications, etc. This process is not only duplicative and redundant; it is wasteful of resources that could be better allocated, i.e., to claims adjustment and new policyholder application issuance. Thus, there is a need in the industry for a resource conscious method of storing prior insurance policies.
Prior art methods relating to archival and version management include a method for storing related information in a single container data structure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,207 to Lo et al. discloses a method of pooling containers having multiple versions of a distinct document. Pooling containers are divided into layers wherein at most one unique version of a document is stored. Also disclosed is a mechanism for manipulating the distinct document to be used at a given time. However, Lo et al. fail to mention linking of or referencing between the distinct versions; the reference merely discusses distinct versions of a single document collocated within the same container.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,206 to Rivette et al. discloses a method for grouping documents automatically by utilizing system and user grouping constraints. Documents associated with the group may be mapped, linked to forwards and backwards citations, as well as bracketed and clustered. However, Rivette et al. limit their discussion to the location and grouping of keywords manually selected and input by the user; the system only searches for different grammatical variants of the user-input keyword. No mention is made of an automated search predicated solely on system-generated terms nor is any made of an allowance for terms having either constant or variable values.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,396 to Bowman-Amuah discloses a system and method for associating multiple versions of business objects with one another. A legacy system interconnected with a client via an integration architecture uses a legacy wrapper to communicate with a client. Although the calculation of insurance rates are mentioned, the calculation referred to pertains to communication regarding a single customer component of an insurance rate quote between a newer system of an independent agency and a legacy system of an insurance company. Bowman-Amuah fails to discuss or even mention accessing legacy information in the calculation of insurance rates. Rather, facilitating communication between legacy and newer protocols is discussed.
U.S. patent application publication 2003/01355520 A1 to Mitchell et al. discloses a method for storing different versions of a body of statutory law and judicial precedent. Different versions of bodies of law are linked and associated via pointers. A version of interest is accessed by navigating through a display along a hierarchical path. Also disclosed is a method of hyper-linking information included in the same file, record, or structured document. However, Mitchell et al. simply provide for a display of dates in association with selected versions of a particular portion of a body of law. Furthermore, particular portions of a body of law are simply linked based on their physical locations within a statute or code; no mention is made of a linking based on content or meaning of a particular portion or section of a selected body of law.
Although it is common practice to sort and search by either an insured business name or a tax identification number to find prior policies issued to a particular business, name searches are limited in their ability to provide prior policy information when an insured changes their business name, or, in the event that a search keyed on a tax identification number was performed, a business would appear to have duplicative insurance policy coverage, one policy for each tax identification number. Thus, the ability to accurately find, evaluate, and present all prior policy information corresponding to a particular insured business in a concise, chronological order is hindered.
Whatever the precise merits, features, and advantages of the above cited references, none of them achieves or fulfills the purposes of the present invention.